Re: Black mirror: it's either genuine over-the-top woke-ness or parody
Careful now.
358 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Apr 2011
M1 comes with 8 or 16GB RAM
M1 Pro comes with 16 or 32GB RAM
M1 Max comes with 32 or 64GB RAM
The real-world testing I have seen shows that the difference between 16 and 32GB is subtle and probably not worth the extra.
I would normally go for more RAM over disk space to reduce chance of swapping/thrashing but in this case I chose the later on the new MacBook Pro based on the testing I saw and I have not been disappointed. Video editing, compiling, massive spreadsheets, photo mangling all work a treat.
Also got 10% discount at a local dealer for Black Friday.
I still have the wonderful Z88 that I bought to type up my CS PhD on … I wrote a unix utility to send/receive files over the serial port to a Sun workstation, it is in the Z88 user group software library somewhere.
The Z88 was a great machine to just pull out and start typing on, A4 in size, about 15mm deep, with EPROM storage, AA batteries and a dead flesh keyboard (dust attractor!). A ‘cambridge topper’ was an absolute must to protect it though.
It meant I could work from anywhere in the early 90s … I still have an acoustic coupler that I have used with the Z88 to dial in to university systems from a pay phone on a busy street.
I have 2 eMates, one works, so the other could be reborn with one of my spare older Pies.
It will have to come after I’ve finished a Minitel terminal rebuild that I have underway. It got dropped by a courier and so all that survives is the 8x8 membrane chicklet keyboard and the plastic CRT frame 8-/
Oh and reusing a 1981 TRS-80 model II keyboard (has a builtin cpu that does keyscan to serial conversion) could act as a retro Pi-400 workalike case for another Pi.
They tried before, admittedly nearly 10 years ago so maybe corporate memory might fail long enough for them to waste more money ...
https://www.cnet.com/news/heres-why-the-facebook-phone-flopped/
Would probably be cheaper for FB to buy Samsung.
I wrote up my CS PhD thesis on a Z88 back in the early 90s whilst sitting in the back garden and even wrote a serial driver for SunOS to let me upload the typed up LaTex to be able to render it 8-) It was bought from new and got pimped out a bit and still works along with the Rangerdisk floppy drive add-on. Lovely dead-flesh keyboard.
I actually wanted to buy a PSION MC400 but could not afford it back then ... got a lovely one years later, magic kit and sits alongside a Psion 7 netboot nicely. Still miss Psion, sniff.
Retro kit is back big style which I put down to the Raspberry Pi effect ... in the early 2000s it was easy to pick up old kit for a few quid which now goes for hundreds of pounds. I've lost count of the amount of kit secreted around the house but it must run to at least 50 or 60 systems (most of them still functional).
I have a fondness for VT-style terminals .. I still kick myself for getting rid of a broken APL programming terminal (a beautiful cast-iron heavyweight in blue/grey) which I would now retrofit with Pi's and Arduinos etc. Nothing beats a 70s/80s clickkerty-clackkerty keyboard for text entry joy!
Armbian Linux is very usable on the Orange Pi 3 as mine can testify even though it is currently marked as a "work in progress". The OPi 3 makes a rather fast firewall with native GigE, USB 3 .. the PCIe port is not supported under Linux because the "Allwinner H6 has a quirky PCIe controller".
I use Armbian on the various Orange Pi models I have deployed .. PC2, +2E, Zero and One
At that point I stopped reading .. and it had been going quite well until then.
I was employed for my lateral thinking, problem solving and communication abilities not my sartorial elegance.
Having worked in both academia and 'business' I found that the best people to work with were scruffy and/or odd/crazy and the worst people were clean shaven, sharp suited, forked-tongued MBA types.
I think the terms "some" and "unscrupulous" are redundant here ... remember in the free market the price is dictated by both buyer and seller ... just buy from the 'best value' (product of cost, quality and service) and be prepared to walk when the seller tries to pull a fast one.
I think this is a non story. The expired cert is not even for the given website ... I believe this is a 3rd party webhosting error. A default config on the frontend load balancer / SSL reverse proxy probably.
The website just appears to be a marketing site rather than a banking service site and as such should not HTTPS to be configured.
I'd love to say this is the bank's fault and is a result of outsourcing but I can't see any direct evidence of that.
Or even the BBC's 2008 "The Last Enemy" which had Cumberbatch trying to escape the Total Information Awareness database.
But the first one I fondly remember watching was the "IT Thriller" in the eighties, Bird of Prey, with the late great Richard "uncle monty" Griffiths ... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/07/monitor_bird_of_prey_retrospective/
You can make EASY MONEY by switching and taking advantage of savings offers (bank tarting).
[http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts]
First Direct pay £100 to switch (and they are very chatty in the customer service department and their mobile app on iOS can use TouchID).
Co-op pay £150 to switch (I've had an account with them for 20+ years)
Halifax pay £100 to switch
M&S pay '£100 M&S gift card' to switch (if you need a new suit, shirts, ties, ladies underwear)
If you don't want to switch then why not open a new account somewhere put a couple of direct debits on it and then after a month or so switch that account to one of the above and make some money .. rinse and repeat.
Also works for credit cards .. cash back on purchases and 0% interest for over a year (hint: put the money you would have used to pay off the credit card each month in to a regular savings account and earn up to 6% [firstdirect], 5% [nationwide])
TSB pay 5% on up to £100/month in transactions using contactless or apple pay .. money for old rope ... you even get 5% on up to £2000 when in balance .. just pay in £500 per month (standing order it around from another bank and then back again).
Remember money makes money but only if you make it work for you and not for the Banks.
Better still .. don't delete it, instead change ALL your details to something weird to help poison their well.
And change your email address to a specially created yahoo or hotmail one of course. It won't stop linkedin spam to your original signup address but you can redirect that to /dev/null
You really want to look at the upcoming Pebble Time 2 which is on kickstarter at the moment (nearly $10m so far).
I have an original Pebble (B&W but a bit ugly/utilitarian) and a Pebble Time (colour, nice styling and a comfortable fit) and I've ordered a PT2 because of the bigger display and pulse-meter (as its nice to know if you are zombie)
I also have an Apple Watch 'look-a-like' which is, umm, just a red LED digital watch inside but definitely looks and feels like an AW .. fun for hipster baiting 8-)